In memory of the 306 men shot at dawn

For 90 years their names were blighted with shame and history tried to forget them.

The Shot at Dawn Memorial is a British Monument at the National Memorial Arboretum near Alrewas, in Staffordshire, UK. It memorialises the 306 British and Commonwealth soldiers executed after courts-martial for cowardice or desertion during World War ISource: https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7146/6432814907_01a610dfc8_z.jpg

Their names were never remembered on memorials and family’s often hid the truth, shame was too much off a burden when so many had died with honour.

Their crime was cowardice and 306 young men – four of them just 17 – were shot at dawn during the First World War.

For most of these young men, cowardice was far from the truth, it was the traumas of war, break downs amidst the unspeakable horrors they endured in the trenches.

In 2006 all 306 men received a posthumous pardon, some names went onto being inscribed…